The present invention is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-157409, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector which is configured in a manner that one or plural stages of insulation housings are disposed therein each of which is additionally provided with common terminal chambers each capable of housing a crimp-style terminal or a crimped terminal or a press contact terminal thereby to house the crimped terminals and the press contact terminals in a mixed manner within the-connector.
2. Related Art
In recent years, in accordance with the increase of the number of electric devices and control circuits etc. mounted on an automobile, the number of electric wires to be housed in a wiring harness wired within a body of the automobile has been increased. In such a wire harness having many electric wires to be housed, such a connector has been increasingly employed that houses and holds press contact terminals which are excellent in workability of coupling the end portions of the electric wires.
The press contact terminal is configured in a manner that when a covered electric wire is inserted with pressure between a pair of press-contact blades disposed in an opposite manner, the press-contact blades cut the insulation cover of the covered wire and are made in contact with the inner conductor of the covered wire and so electrically coupled to the inner conductor of the covered wire. As compared with the conventionally spread crimped terminals, such a press contact terminal can eliminate a process of stripping off the cover of the end portion of the electric wire and a process of caulking the terminal, and hence the workability of coupling the electric wires can be improved to a large extent
However, the press contact terminal is restricted in the kinds of electric wires capable of being coupled thereto due to the configuration thereof. For example, the press contact terminal is not suitable for a covered electric wire in which the outer diameter of the inner conductor thereof is out of the prescribed range with respect to a gap size between the pair of the press-contact blades, for a shield electric wire in which a shield wire is disposed on the outer periphery of the inner conductor, and for an electric wire requiring a high coupling intensity.
In general, the wire harness for an automobile contains various kinds of cover electric wires and shield electric wires etc. having different sizes, and so it is required, in view of productivity, to use properly electric wires to be coupled to the press contact terminals and electric wires to be coupled to crimped terminals like the conventional technique.
In view of such a mixed usage of the press contact terminals and the crimped terminals, such a connector is proposed which is configured in a manner that one or plural stages of insulation housings are disposed therein each of which is additionally provided with common terminal chambers each capable of housing a crimp-style terminal or a crimped terminal or a press contact terminal thereby to house the crimped terminals and the press contact terminals in a mixed manner within the connector
FIGS. 9 to 11 show an example of conventional connector housing the crimped terminals and the press contact terminals in a mixed manner.
A connector 1 shown in the figures is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 189117/1998 and is configured in a manner that common terminal chambers 8 commonly usable for crimped terminals 5 and press contact terminals 6 are disposed in two lines of upper and lower stages in a mixed manner within an insulation housing 3.
Each of the crimped terminals 5 and the press contact terminals 6 is a press molded part formed by a metal conductor plate.
As shown in FIG. 10, the press contact terminal 6 is configured in a manner that two pairs of press-contact blades 6a, 6a each pair of which cut the outer cover of a covered electric wire 13 and are made in contact with the inner conductor of the electric wire are disposed at the rear end portion of the terminal in an opposite manner and a female terminal fitting portion 6c into which a coupling male terminal of a partner side is fitted is disposed at the front end portion of the terminal.
As shown in FIG. 11, the crimped terminal 5 is configured in a manner that a conductor caulking nail. 5a for making press-contact with the inner conductor of a covered electric wire 12 and a cover caulking nail 5b for pressing the covered electric wire 12 on the outer cover thereof are disposed at the rear end portion of the terminal and a female terminal fitting portion 5c into which a coupling male terminal of a partner side is fitted is disposed at the front end portion of the terminal.
The common terminal chamber 8 is provided at the rear half portion thereof with an opening which makes a pair of the press-contact blades 6a, 6a of the rear end portion possible to press-contact with the covered electric wire 13 of the terminal after the press contact terminal 6 is housed within the common terminal chamber. Covers 9, 10 for shielding the opening are integrally formed with the insulation housing 3 by thin-thickness hinges 11 at the front side from the opening, respectively.
The front half portion of the common terminal chamber 8 houses the terminal fitting portions 5c, 6c of the crimped terminal 5 and the press contact terminal 6 and has therein flexible lances 3a, 3b for provisionally engaging these terminals 5, 6.
The press contact terminal 6 and the crimped terminal 5 are inserted from the rear side of the common terminal chambers 8 toward the front side of the insulation housing 3 as shown by arrows A, B in FIGS. 10 and 11, respectively, and provisionally engaged with the flexible lances 3a, 3b within the common terminal chambers 8.
As shown in FIG. 10, in the press contact terminals 6, the covered electric wires 13 are made in contact with pressure to the press-contact blades 6a, 6a from direction shown by arrows C, D, respectively. As shown in FIG. 11, the covered electric wires 12 are made in contact with pressure to the crimped terminals 5 in advance.
Thereafter, the open/close covers 9, 10 are closed and so both the crimped terminals and the press contact terminals 6 are placed in a formally engaged state, whereby the crimped terminals 5 and the press contact terminals 6 are prevented from coming out of the common terminal chambers.
As shown in FIG. 9., the open/close covers 9, 10 thus closed engage with engaging lock portions 3c, 3d protrusively provided at the outer side surface of the insulation housing 3 and so are locked in a closed state, respectively.
However, according to the aforesaid conventional connector 1, the terminals 5, 6 are attached to the common terminal chambers 8 by inserting the terminals from the rear side of the insulation housing 3.
Thus, the terminals 5, 6 which are inserted along the longitudinal direction of the terminals upon insertion are apt to vibrate, so that there is a possibility that the front end portions etc. of the terminals collide with the inner wall surfaces of the common terminal chambers 8 due to the vibration of the terminals and so the insertion operation of the terminals can not be performed smoothly.
Further, the insertion direction (the direction shown by the arrows A, B in FIGS. 10, 11) of the crimped terminals 5 and the press contact terminals 6 with respect to the common terminal chambers 8 on the insulation housing 3 differs from the directions (the directions shown by the arrows C, D in FIG. 10) of the press-contact operation of the covered electric wires 13 with respect to the press contact terminals 6. Thus, it is difficult to automate a mounting process of the crimped terminals 5 and the press contact terminals 6 on the insulation housing 3 and a press-contact process of the covered 6 electric wires 13 with respect to the press contact terminals 6, whereby there arises a problem that the workability of the assembling process for the connector 1 is not good.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to obviate the aforesaid problems of the conventional technique, and to provide a connector which can house crimped terminals and press contact terminals in a mixed manner, and enhance the workability of the inserting operation of the respective terminals within common terminal chambers to improve the workability of the assembling operation of the connector thereby to reduce a cost of the connector.
The aforesaid object of the invention is attained by a connector comprising:
one or plural stages of insulation housings, each of which includes a base plate portion and partition walls which are erected from the base plate portion, thereby forming a plurality of common terminal chambers;
each of the common terminal chambers being configured to be capable of accommodating a crimped terminal or a press contact terminal;
crimped terminals and press contact terminals accommodated in a mixed manner within the insulating housings;
wherein openings of the common terminal chambers through which the crimped terminal or the press contact terminal is inserted are formed on one side surface of each insulating housing; and
the insulation housings are stacked and a cover is provided on one of the insulating housings at an end of stacking of the insulating housings so as to cover this insulating housing.
According to the aforesaid configuration, the crimped terminal or the press contact terminal is inserted from the upper opening of the common terminal chamber.
Thus, when compared with the conventional connector in which the crimped terminal or the press contact terminal is inserted within the common terminal chamber from the rear side opening along the longitudinal direction of the terminal, according to the connector of the invention, the size of the opening is large and so the terminals can be inserted easily through the openings. Thus, there does not arise such a phenomenon that the front end portion of the terminal collides with the inner wall of the common terminal chamber due to the vibration of the terminal upon insertion thereof.
Further, the insertion direction of the crimped terminals or the press contact terminals with respect to the common terminal chambers coincides with the direction of the press-contact operation of the covered electric wires with respect to the press contact terminals. Thus, it is easy to automate the mounting process of the respective terminals on the insulation housing and the press-contact process of the covered electric wires with respect to the press contact terminals.
Preferably, each of the partition walls of the insulation housing is provided with a terminal engaging portion which engages with a housing engaging portion of the crimped terminal or the press contact terminal inserted from the upper opening of each of the common terminal chambers to position the terminal in an axis line direction.
In this case, since the press contact terminal inserted into the common terminal chamber is positioned in the axis line direction by the terminal engaging portion engaged with the housing engaging portion, the terminal is prevented from being deviated in its position at the time of the press-contact process. Further, the respective terminals are prevented from coming out until the terminals are covered by the other insulation housing or the cover member laminated on the insulation housing.
Further, preferably, the housing engaging portion includes an engagement opening formed at a side wall of each of the terminals respectively opposing to the partition walls and a flexible engagement piece formed on a terminal bottom wall side of the engagement opening, and the terminal engaging portion is formed by an engagement projection protrusively provided at each of the partition walls in correspondence to the engagement opening.
In this case, since the engagement projection protrusively provided at each of the partition walls engages with the engagement opening or the flexible engagement piece, the terminals can be positioned within the common terminal chambers respectively.
In the conventional connector, the housed terminal is engaged within the terminal housing portion in a manner that the engagement lance raised at the terminal is engaged with a recess portion formed at the inner wall surface of the terminal housing portion and the flexible lance formed at the inner wall surface of the terminal housing portion is engaged with the opening formed at the terminal. Thus, as compared with such a conventional connector, in the invention, it is possible to make the pitch of the arrangement of the common terminal chambers narrower by thinning the thickness of each of the partition walls defining and forming the respective common terminal chambers and so the connector can be miniaturized easily.
The tensile force acting through the covered electric wires coupled to the terminals can be received by the hooking portions between the engagement projections protrusively provided at the partition walls and the opening edges of the engagement openings into which the engagement projections are fitted. Thus, as compared with the conventional engagement lance and flexible lance, the sufficient terminal engagement force can be easily secured for the insulation housing.
Further, since the flexible engagement pieces do not protrude outside of the side walls of the terminals, there is no possibility that the flexible engagement pieces 43 are caught by other terminals or other members etc. and damaged during the transportation of the terminals. Thus, the connector according to the invention can be treated easily.